


silver linings

by manusinistra



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/F, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-11
Updated: 2016-11-11
Packaged: 2018-08-30 09:37:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 721
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8528098
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/manusinistra/pseuds/manusinistra
Summary: Most days, Maggie likes her job. Set during 2x05.





	

Most days, Maggie likes her job. Most days, she revels in doing something that matters, meeting all kinds of beings from all kinds of places and making sure no one – human or alien – breaks the law with impunity. 

And then there are days like today, when invisible tech melts a man’s brain as she’s arresting him and she thinks it might be nice to be back in Nebraska, in a world that makes sense even if it’s not always kind.

Instead of a lead on the big bad, she’s left with bodies crumpled on the ground and a quicksand exhaustion dragging down at her. She fills out her report because what else can she do – paperwork has gotten weirder since the supers showed up, but it’s still there, slow and grinding and unavoidable. It keeps her from having to go home, at least, where everything reminds her of the breakup. Her girlfriend – her _ex_ – saturates the space of her apartment, and while Maggie used to like that now she can’t see anything but the explosion of a relationship she’d thought was going strong.

_Can you even love something that’s not your job? I don’t think you’re capable of real connection with another person_.

So much for that.

When everything’s filed, Maggie makes her way to the bar instead of going home. She sets up a row of shots because it’s going to take a lot of alcohol to put a dent in this mood she’s got going on.

Danvers appears after she’s downed the second one, asks how she is, and Maggie gets halfway through answering before she remembers what happened the last time they talked. Danvers was hitting on her without realizing it, and then ran away after Maggie pushed maybe too hard about the gay thing. That she’s here now is confusing, and Maggie squints at her, not sure whether she should be more or less drunk for whatever is about to happen.

“What’re you doing here,” she says. The words are less kind than they could be, but it’s been a day and Danvers works for an actual secret government agency and Maggie figures you get past niceness the second time you almost die together.

“I was worried about you,” Alex says, intent and weighty, and this – _this_ is why Maggie pushed about the gay thing. Because in her experience, this right here is what straight girls do when they stop being straight girls.

But what does she know. She can’t even hold down a relationship; clearly she’s no expert on how to be gay.

“I’m sorry if I was too forward the other day,” Maggie says. “That wasn’t my place.”

All of Danvers’ tells go off at once: she looks at the ceiling, shakes her head, opens her mouth but doesn’t say anything. Maggie’s intuition – as a cop and as a queer woman – screams at her to pay attention, and so she shoves all her own shit behind a wall in her brain and focuses in on this moment. Focuses on Danvers, who is sitting down and leaning forward; when they lock eyes, Maggie feels the force of it everywhere.

“My whole life," Alex starts, "has been about being perfect.”  

She talks about how she’d thought dating just wasn’t for her, talks around the words she can’t say out loud yet. Maggie’s frustration - at the job, at herself, at the world gone crazy - melts away as she listens. She feels honored that she gets to listen, to be here in this moment with Danvers while she works herself out.

Maggie went through so many things by herself, unable to imagine there could be other people like her out in the world, let alone that they might be able to help her. She survived that, she’s stronger now for it, but she’s glad with sudden, surprising fierceness that she can keep Danvers from having to do this alone.

So Maggie sits and listens and tries to prompt without pushing. Danvers runs away again, eventually, but Maggie gets it. Some things are too hard to face all at once, and she has a feeling Danvers will find her again when she needs to.

Maggie looks at her last shot, leaves it there on the table. Maybe, she thinks, even after the breakup, the job isn’t all that she has.

 


End file.
